Al Jr Freeman

American actor, director, and educator, who was the first African-American to win a Daytime Emmy Award for acting. A life member of The Actors Studio, Freeman appeared in a wide variety of plays, ranging from Leroi Jones' "Slave/Toilet" to Joe Papp's revivals of "Long Day's Journey Into Night" and "Troilus and Cressida," and films, including "My Sweet Charlie," "Finian's Rainbow," and "Malcolm X," as well as television series and soap operas, such as "One Life to Live," "The Cosby Show," "Law & Order," "Homicide: Life on the Street" and "The Edge of Night." He is mostly recognized for his portrayal of police captain Ed Hall on the ABC soap opera "One Life to Live," a role he played from 1972 through 1987, with recurring appearances in 1988 and 2000. He won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor for that role in 1979, the first actor from the show as well as the first African-American actor to earn the award. A director of "One Life to Live," he was one of the first African Americans to direct a soap opera. Freeman died on 9 August 2012 in Washington, D.C., aged 78. Link to Wikipedia biography